Around these parts, we’ve charted the ups, downs, and often bizarre decisions of Soundcloud. It’s clear to say that things aren’t going well for them right now, as their cleaning up house tactics are turning people away from them in droves. And capitalising on this dissent is Mixcloud, that rather cheekily has created a Soundcloud Import tool.
But it’s not just as easy as pointing Mixcloud at Soundcloud and letting it do the rest. Mixcloud is pretty specific on what it does and doesn’t allow. This is from their site:
Uploading: What type of content you can upload
Mixcloud is a digital platform for Radio.
We accept all types of Radio content including talk & music radio shows, DJ mix sets and Podcasts in MP3, AAC, M4A, MP4 audio or OGG file types.
Mixcloud has blanket radio licensing deals with various collecting societies around the world. This means that users can upload shows or mix sets with songs from any catalogue and we pay royalties to these societies, who in turn distribute them to artists, labels and publishers.
Mixcloud does not allow the upload of single tracks or albums, and has a limit of tracks you can use by a single artist.
Please take note: if you do not abide by these rules, your content may be taken down.
So clearly Mixcloud doesn’t want to be a dumping ground for your mashups and remixes, or completely hooky unlicensed material either. So if you think that playing musical chairs with streaming services will buy you some time, think again. Looks like Mixcloud doesn’t want to be in the same hot water as others, and will be true to its name.
The funniest thing for me is that Mixcloud will send you a mail when anyone you follow on Mixcloud migrates. It’s like rubbing Soundcloud’s nose in it.
Soundcloud’s future is still unclear. With Sony announcing that they’re removing some material from Soundcloud, it looks like the majors are looking to move away from the platform and look at other options. We can only watch from the sidelines to see what happens next.
If you want options outside of Soundcloud, there’s no better way than to check out Dan’s streaming site group test.